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Where They Fought , WWII European Tour
Day 1 – Friday, September 15: Depart the U.S for your flight to Amsterdam.
Day 2 – Saturday, September 16: Arrive in Amsterdam and travel to our 1st destination, Nijmegen, Holland.
After settling into our hotel we’ll venture out-and-about in the oldest city of the Netherlands, with Roman
remains and Middle Ages art & architecture throughout the city. Because Nijmegen was the first city to fall
into German hands in 1940, and liberated in late 1944, there is much WWII history to be seen.
Day 3 – Sunday, September 17: We will travel to nearby Groesbeek for Commemoration Ceremonies of the
82nd Airborne Landings, on the 1st day of Market Garden Battle, September 17th, 1944.
We will tour the Liberation Museum--at the very site of the Groesbeek heights landings--bringing to life the
historical events of the liberation by American, British, Canadian & Polish troops at the beginning of this fate-
ful battle.
Evening will take us to the Nijmegen bridge, De Oversteek (The Crossing), built in 2013, replacing the bridge
which was seized by the American 82nd Airborne from the Germans on September 20, 1944.
At twilight after the city lights of Nijmegen have been switched on, the 48 pairs of lights on the bridge---in
commemoration of the 48 Americans who lost their lives crossing the treacherous Waal River to take the
bridge---flicker on, one-by-one. The flood lights are then switched on, making the beautiful bridge visible at
night, in all its glory.
Day 4 – Monday, September 18: We will travel to the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, at
Margraten, the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands. We will lay a bouquet of flowers to
remember the 8,301 Americans buried at the cemetery, as well as the 1,722 recorded on the Wall of the
Missing.
From Margraten, we will take a different route back, following the Battle of the Bridges where the American
Airborne and the British Tank Corp battled their way through the lowlands of Holland in their quest to ‘take
the bridges’. We will travel through Eindhoven, Son, Veghel, and up Hell’s Highway to Grave, ending the
route at Arnhem bridge . . .The Bridge Too Far.
We will tour the Hotel Hartenstein, 1st British Airborne Division Headquarters during Operation Market Gar-
den. It is now a 3-floor museum dedicated to the brave men of the 1st British Airborne Division and the 1st
Polish Parachute Brigade who fought at Arnhem and the Oosterbeek surroundings during Market Garden.
We will then visit the nearby “Airborne Cemetery”, home to 1759 graves of brave men who fought in the
Battle of Arnhem.
Back to the hotel, at the end of a momentous day.
Day 5 – Tuesday, September 19: We leave Nijmegen for a travel day to Nuremberg, Germany, through the
heartland of Germany and then settle into our hotel.